‘That old thing?’ mocked Hamish. ‘He looks like a collapsed handbag.’
‘You’ll be amazed what he can do when his fire lights up again,’ said Jody, hoping she was right. ‘He’ll be more powerful than any witch or wizard. He can do absolutely anything.’
‘Really?’ said Hamish nastily, beginning to get interested. ‘In that case, he could help to make me ruler of the world. C’mon then, what are we wasting time for? Let’s find him some coal.’
6. No more spells
‘Come on, Mr Majeika!’ called Pete. ‘Do some spells to stop stupid old Miss Worlock from shutting us up here for ever and ever!’
‘Yes,’ shouted the rest of Class Three. ‘Come on, Mr Majeika!’
Mr Majeika thought for a moment. It was a long time since he had had a battle of spells with Wilhelmina, and he was very out of practice. It would be easy to make a mistake in the heat of the moment, and turn himself into something that she could easily hurt or kill. As for casting a spell over her, a powerful witch who practised her spells daily, that was something Mr Majeika knew he couldn’t bring off without a lot of planning.
He decided to repeat a trick he’d once played before – turning himself into a flea, which would bite her all over. He tried to remember the spell for doing this. He knew it came in the section of his spell book which had spells for making yourself a lot smaller, and also a lot bigger. He tried to remember the words, then said them quickly under his breath.
Oh dear! It must have been the wrong spell, because he felt himself blowing up like a balloon. Yes, that was it, on the page opposite the flea spell was one which did exactly that, turned you into a gigantic balloon. And now it was too late to stop!
Class Three watched in horror as Mr Majeika got bigger and bigger, and rounder and rounder, and began to float in the air.
‘Tee-hee!’ cackled Miss Worlock. ‘Silly old Majeika has made a bit of a mistake, hasn’t he? Now, let me see if I can find a pin.’
‘Oh no!’ shouted Thomas. ‘If she sticks a pin into him, he’ll go bang, and that’ll be the end of Mr Majeika. Oh, come on, Mr Majeika, can’t you rescue yourself?’
Mr Majeika could hear Thomas, but he had made the mistake of turning himself into a thing, rather than an animal or person, and things can’t talk, or say spells – not without a huge effort. And Mr Majeika suddenly felt very tired. The whizzing round of the Ghost Train when it first set off had quite upset his stomach, and now he was feeling terribly bloated on account of being a balloon. He tried to speak, but no words would come out. And without words, he couldn’t say a spell.
‘Well, well,’ gloated Wilhelmina Worlock. ‘No more spells from silly old Majeika! I’ll tell you what, dearies, I won’t puncture him with this pin if you behave yourselves! You must all be good little kiddiwinks and run the Weather Factory for Wilhelmina for the rest of your lives, or else I’ll stick this pin into stupid Majeika, and bang! That’ll be the end of him. Now, get on with it!’
‘Wait a minute, Miss Worlock,’ said Pete. ‘Why are you in charge of this Weather Factory? What’s it got to do with you?’
‘A good question,’ said the weather man, who was just putting on his coat before leaving. ‘She’s supposed to be the one who runs it. She was sent down here as a punishment for being a particularly nasty witch, and she was supposed to spend the rest of her life – about ten thousand years – working all the weather machines. But she tricked me into doing the job for her. She put an advertisement in the newspaper, it said: “Do you want lots of sunshine on your holiday? Then we have just the place for you to go.” Well, there is lots of sunshine. But there’s lots of every other kind of weather as well. And it’s ten years since she put a spell on me to imprison me here.’
‘Be off with you!’ hissed Wilhelmina to the weather man, ‘or I won’t take the spell off you, and you can stay here for ever and ever with the others. Now, the rest of you, get on with it!’
Meanwhile, a long long way Upstairs, Mr Potter was looking out of the window
of his office. The weather had been murky all morning, but now the sun had come out. That was good, because he was supposed to be taking Class Two for PE. He went down to their classroom, and told them all to come out into the playground.
As they followed him outside, there was a sudden clap of thunder, and everyone screamed. Then there was a flash of lightning – after the thunder, which Mr Potter thought was very odd. Then it began to snow, which Mr Potter thought even odder. But he had no sooner ordered Class Two indoors again when an enormous rainbow appeared, and the sun came out. And then, suddenly, there was thick fog…
Downstairs, far far below St Barty’s School, Class Three were pulling every lever in sight. Wilhelmina Worlock had gone off, leaving them to run the Weather Factory, and telling them to behave themselves, otherwise she would put a particularly nasty spell on them. As soon as she was out of sight, Pete said: ‘Let’s make the maddest weather we possibly can. Then everyone Upstairs will notice that something is wrong, and they’ll send down a search party to rescue us.’
So they tried it. But time passed, and no rescue party came.
‘The trouble is,’ said Thomas, ‘that the weather Upstairs is always odd. It’s always raining or snowing when you least expect it. So they won’t notice the difference.’
‘And supposing they did know we were down here,’ said Pandora, ‘they might want us to stay here, so they could tell us what weather they wanted on special days and at special times. They might even pay us to give them fine weather for the school sports day, and things like that. We could get rich!’
‘That’s the sort of idea Hamish Bigmore would think of,’ said Pete. ‘I wonder where he is. And where Jody is. Do you know, Mr Majeika?’
They kept talking to Mr Majeika all the time, in the hope that it would stop him being a balloon. But he just hung there silently in the middle of the Weather Factory, looking miserable.
At first, everyone quite enjoyed themselves, pulling all the handles to make the various kinds of weather happen. But then two things started to go wrong. First, their wellington boots gradually melted, as Mr Majeika’s spell wore off, and they didn’t turn back into shoes, so everyone found they were standing in their stockinged feet. And the floor of the Weather Factory was cold and wet, with all the fog and frost that was flying about the place, so soon they were all shivering.
The second thing was that they started to get hungry. It was hours since they
had had breakfast, and there seemed to be nothing to eat in the place. ‘What did the weather man find to eat, I wonder?’ said Pandora.
‘Maybe he didn’t eat at all,’ said Thomas. ‘If Wilhelmina Worlock had put a spell on him, it’s possible that he simply didn’t need food. But no one has put a spell on us, and we certainly do! We can’t live off mouthfuls of fog.’
At that moment, there was a timid knock on the door of the Weather Factory. Class Three had discovered that they couldn’t go outside because Wilhelmina had put some sort of invisible barrier in the doorway, to stop them escaping, but they were able to open the door. Pete opened it now.
‘Hello,’ said Jody, who was standing outside. ‘I’m glad I’ve found you all. This is Dennis the Dragon.’
7. Wilhelmina has a bit of trouble
Everyone crowded round the doorway to look at the dragon. ‘He doesn’t look very strong,’ said Thomas, peering at the sad bundle of wings and tail, and the miserable-looking head.
‘He’s not,’ said Jody. ‘He ran out of coal ages and ages ago – Miss Worlock starved him of it – and without coal, a dragon just fades away. But Hamish has gone to look for some, and Dennis (that’s his name) is much better already, just because he’s been thinking about the chances of having a mouthful of coal in an hour or two. Isn’t that right, Dennis?’
‘Dennis is very, very hungry,’ said the dragon mournfully. ‘He’s trying to remember what coal tastes like. Poor
Dennis. Poor, poor Dennis.’ The dragon cru
mpled up even more, and looked half dead.
‘Now, Dennis, don’t behave like that,’ said Jody sternly. ‘You were doing fine a few minutes ago. You managed to melt the bars of your cage, so there must be a bit of fire left in your tummy still.’ Jody felt for the invisible barrier, put up by Wilhelmina Worlock, which made it impossible to get through the door of the Weather Factory. ‘Come on, Dennis,’ she said, ‘see what you can do with this. Just think flames! That’s what worked last time.’
The dragon screwed up his eyes and thought hard. After a moment, there was a low rumbling in his belly, and an instant later smoke began to trickle out of his nostrils. With difficulty, he reared himself up to his full height, and with a roar opened his mouth. Out darted a flame! It licked around the invisible barrier; there was a hissing sound and a lot of black smoke.
Jody reached out in front of her. The invisible barrier had gone. ‘Hooray!’ she shouted. ‘Well done, Dennis! Now everyone can escape.’
‘Come and look round the Weather
Factory before we go,’ said Thomas. ‘It’s worth seeing. Besides, shouldn’t you be waiting for Hamish Bigmore to bring the coal?’
‘I can’t think why you’re trusting Hamish to help with the plan,’ said Pete. ‘Why didn’t you fetch the coal yourself?’
‘I was in a hurry,’ said Jody. ‘I needed to find you, to make sure you were all right. And I think Hamish will be sensible for once. He seemed as keen to get Dennis’s fire going again as I was.’
‘Knowing Hamish,’ said Pandora, ‘he’s probably got some nasty plan of his own up his sleeve. But Jody, look what happened to Mr Majeika!’ She pointed at the balloon, which was looking more miserable than ever.
‘Oh no!’ exclaimed Jody. ‘Can’t he turn himself back again?’ They explained to her what had happened. ‘I wonder,’ said Jody thoughtfully. ‘Dennis has been telling me that dragons are much more powerful magicians than witches and wizards. Dennis, could you turn Mr Majeika back into himself?’
‘Dennis will have to think about it,’ said the dragon, who seemed to be exhausted after melting the invisible barrier. ‘If only he had his coal… Hark! Dennis hears someone coming. Could it be the coal-bringer, at last?’
Jody peered out of the door. ‘It is!’ she said excitedly. ‘Hamish is pushing a big barrow full of coal. But there’s somebody riding on it. Oh no! It’s –
She didn’t need to finish, because they could all hear a well-known voice cackling away. ‘Tee hee! Hurry up, my Star Pupil, and then we can catch this fine dragon you’ve been telling me about, and use it for our wicked plan. Faster, faster!’
‘Quick, Dennis,’ said Jody, ‘hide behind this fog machine. Then we can pretend you’re not here.’
‘Dennis doesn’t like fog,’ grumbled the dragon. ‘It makes his fire go out.’ But he waddled over to a corner of the Weather Factory, and hid behind the large grey machine which made the fog.
He had hidden not a moment too soon. There in the doorway, stood Wilhelmina and her Star Pupil. Hamish was covered in black smudges. ‘Did you enjoy being a coal-miner, Hamish?’ asked Thomas, laughing.
Hamish glared at him. ‘Your laughing days are over. From now on, we’re in charge! Mr Majeika doesn’t stand a chance! How do you like being a balloon, silly old Mr Majeika?’ He stuck his tongue out at the balloon.
And the balloon stuck its tongue out at Hamish.
Everyone gasped, and Miss Worlock began to look worried. ‘Who’s meddling with spells?’ she muttered. ‘Majeika shouldn’t be able to do that.’
‘Well, I can, Wilhelmina,’ said the balloon, ‘because there’s somebody here whose magic is more powerful than yours. Here we go!’ And, shouting these words, Mr Majeika suddenly turned back into himself again.
Everyone cheered. ‘Well done, Dennis,’ called Mr Majeika, and the dragon came crawling out from behind the fog machine. ‘Your magic is far more powerful than silly old Wilhelmina’s.
She’s completely in your power, isn’t she?’
‘Dennis is certainly feeling a lot better,’ said the dragon, looking pleased with himself. ‘But he’d be even stronger if he had a mouthful of that coal.’ He looked greedily at the wheelbarrow.
‘And Dennis can have all the coal in the world,’ said Miss Worlock, ‘if he comes with me and my Star Pupil.’ The dragon licked its lips hungrily, as Miss Worlock picked a big lump of coal out of the barrow, and held it out to him. ‘Yes, Dennis, all the coal you can eat, if you’ll fly Upstairs with me and my Star Pupil on your back.’ The dragon licked its lips again, and then nodded.
‘What are you going to do when you get there?’ said Jody nervously.
‘Why, make things very nasty indeed for people who won’t do what we tell them,’ said Miss Worlock, with a horrible grin. ‘It’s not very nice having a dragon land on your roof-top and set your house, or your palace, or your government buildings, on fire. And that’s what we’re going to do to anyone who doesn’t obey our orders, aren’t we, my Star Pupil?’
‘You bet we are,’ said Hamish. ‘Over here, Dennis.’ Hamish held out more lumps of coal, but there was no need to lure the dragon over. He was already making a rush at the wheelbarrow, and in a moment he had gobbled up every single lump of coal. ‘That’s right,’ said Hamish. ‘And there’s lots more where that came from.’
Everyone could hear the roaring of the
fire in Dennis’s tummy now, and he seemed to grow to twice his size as he stood up properly on his back legs for the first time, and began to flap his gigantic wings.
Hamish and Wilhelmina climbed on to the dragon’s back, and held on tight.
Black smoke and steam billowed from his nostrils, as he took to the air, and carried Hamish and Miss Worlock out of the door of the Weather Factory, and away into the distance.
‘This is terrible, Mr Majeika,’ said Jody. ‘I didn’t think Dennis would let us down like this.’
‘He hasn’t,’ said Mr Majeika. ‘Before he flew off, he gave me a great big wink. So I reckon he’s still on our side.’
‘I didn’t see him wink,’ said Pete. ‘I was watching his face the whole time, and he never even moved his eyelids.’
‘Dragons don’t wink with their eyelids,’ said Mr Majeika. ‘They flap one of their wings in a certain way that every wizard and witch recognizes. That’s to say, every wizard and witch who really knows about dragons. Obviously Wilhelmina doesn’t. So she may have a nasty surprise in store!’
8. Hamish gets a job
‘The weather seems to be getting better now,’ said Mr Potter to the weather man. (He had arrived at St Barty’s School just after lunch and had been given a job as a science teacher, since he said he knew a lot about weather.) They took a stroll together across the playground. It was rather quiet without Class Three, who had been away all day, but Mr Potter had learnt not to worry when that sort of thing happened. For some reason, Mr Majeika’s class were always disappearing, but since they always came back in the end, looking as if they’d had a good time, it didn’t bother him.
‘Yes, it’s quite a nice day,’ said the weather man, who was worried, because he knew that Class Three and Mr Majeika had been trapped in the Weather Factory by Miss Worlock. But he didn’t like to tell Mr Potter. He just hoped that they would somehow escape.
‘Wait a minute,’ said Mr Potter. ‘What’s that? It seems to be a very strange aeroplane. And it’s on fire!’
Something with flapping wings was approaching at high speed, with steam
and smoke, and even flames, pouring out of the front. Two people were sitting on the back of it, cackling with horrid laughter. ‘I think it’s a dragon,’ said the weather man.
Mr Potter scratched his head. He thought the new teacher had said ‘dragon’, and that was certainly what the thing looked like. And the people on the back of it closely resembled Hamish Bigmore and some old woman whom Mr Potter thought he had seen somewhere before. They were cackling like mad, and shouting: ‘We’re going to rule the world
. Watch out, St Barty’s, here we come!’
The dragon was flying over the school now, and suddenly the shouts of its two passengers changed to screams. The dragon had dropped them! Down they fell, straight into the big rubbish bin where the school cook and the dinner-
ladies tipped all the nasty leftovers from lunch. ‘Yuck!’ shouted Hamish and Miss Worlock.
‘Dennis has had enough of you two!’ called the dragon. ‘He’s going to find a nice coal-mine, and he’ll spend the rest of his days there in comfort. Goodbye!’ And as he said this last word, he let out a great roar of flame, which caught the edge of the school bicycle shed, and set it on fire.
It was at this moment that a manhole cover in the middle of the playground opened, and Mr Majeika peered out. ‘Oh, good,’ he said. ‘I’ve taken the right short cut. We’re back, everyone.’ He climbed out, and the rest of Class Three followed him.
‘Good afternoon, Mr Potter,’ they all said.
‘Hello, there,’ said Mr Potter, scratching his head. ‘Been on another trip, have you?’
It was three weeks later, and everyone had almost forgotten about the strange adventure underground. Miss Worlock wouldn’t bother them again for some time to come. ‘She made a dreadful mistake sitting on the dragon’s back,’ explained Mr Majeika. ‘A wizard or witch must never touch a dragon. If they do, all their magic power drains out of them, and won’t come back for ages and ages.’ Mr Majeika had used his own magic to banish Wilhelmina back to the Weather Factory, where she was supposed to be, and he had set her to work making the weather.
Dennis the Dragon had found a nice coal-mine, but had soon become bored. He sent Mr Majeika a letter asking if a job could be found for him in Adventure Galaxy. ‘Dennis could give the children a really good ride,’ he wrote.
Mr Majeika and the Ghost Train Page 3